I Wish You More: read and create

I wish you more is a beautiful books of a parent's wishes for a child.

But kids can also have wishes for their parents (and not just the "I want to eat candy for breakfast, and stay up late" kind of wishes.

I Wish You More inspired us to think about wishes for our mums.

Making wishes leads one's thoughts to dandelion seeds.

And that lead us to creating wishes for our mamas.

read 

I Wish You More

created by 

Amy Krause Rosenthal

Tom Lichtenheld

published by Chronicle Books (2015)

I Wish You More offers the reader wishes for more ups than downs, more umbrella than rain, more treasures than pockets ...  The reader is encouraged to discover wonder in the everyday,to delve into curiosity about the world, to delight in friendship and laughter, and to find rest in peaceful moments. This wishes are both made more concrete, and stretch our assumptions, by Tom Lichtenheld's whimsical illustrations. 

Tom Lichtenheld tells the story of the I Wish You More's evolution into being. 

create
The book's cover and last page inspired our creating.

step 1: create the background

We used 8x10" fabric coloured board - from Dollar Tree - with light and darker blue and white acrylic paint all smooshed together with a sponge.

(We could have used light blue paint, but that would have reduced the individuality of each creation, and we liked the depth of the colour variation.)

step 2: make silhouettes
We took pictures of the kids in our external classroom doorway with my iPhone 5s. The children were backlit, and with a bit of editing into black and white and changing the brightness, we got the "look" we wanted for the project. I adjusted the size and printed the silhouettes on a black and white laser printer, cut out the cute little faces and glued them onto the painted boards.

I found good silhouette photo tips [here]. 

step 3: dandelion wishes

We looked at real dandelion wishes to see how they are put together.  (not bad for an iPhone photo!)

Wishes are best made with our hands. 

Fingers to draw the stem.

A finger print for the brown seeds.

Pinky finger prints for the wishes. 

Last thing was a coat of modge lodge to seal the project and deepen the paint colour.

We chatted about what we wished for our mamas. (One little lad said that his mum "just wanted a little respect" - I could hear her voice in his as he said it!!) The kids suggested pretty clothes, "nail polish on her toes", (no wine or chocolate), but mostly they wished for lots of love for their mums.  

I think when they opened their surprises, they did feel lots of love, because a lot of love went into them.